A wide variety of plows for mounting on pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (“SUV's”), “skid steers,” and other vehicles for moving snow is in use. Among the plows in use are straight blade plows and center hinged blade V-plows.
Another type of plow in use employs rotating, translating, or rotating and translating wings mounted on the ends of the plow blade. Translating wings are useful for configuring the blade of the plow in a longer extended length for plowing, and in a shorter retracted length for over road travel. Rotating wings are useful for configuring the blade of the plow into “bucket” and/or “pusher” configurations. In the bucket configuration, the wings are angled forwardly relative to the plow blade, typically at an angle of about 30°. In the pusher configuration, the wings are angled forwardly relative to the plow blade at an angle of about 90°. In either case, the forwardly angled wings prevent snow from sliding off the ends of the blade during plowing. Of course, if desired, one or the other of the wings could be forwardly angled relative to the plow blade, rather than both, depending on the snow conditions, obstacles encountered during plowing, etc.
Examples of plows having wings which both rotate and translate are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,442,877, 6,412,199, 6,408,549, 5,899,007, and 5,638,618, all assigned to Blizard Corporation, Calumet, Mich., and all hereby incorporated by reference herein. Each of these patents describes a plow having a slide mechanism and a hinge mechanism for adjustably mounting a wing to each end of the plow blade. Hydraulic cylinders are mounted to the snow plow blade for use in adjusting, i.e., rotating and translating, the plow wings.
The plows of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,442,877, 6,412,199, 6,408,549, 5,899,007, and 5,638,618 are not without criticism. The slide mechanisms can be subject to galling from snow, ice, salt, and corrosion, and thus can suffer from premature wear. More powerful, and hence heavier, hydraulic cylinders can be required to actuate the slide mechanisms if corroded, frozen, etc. due to increased sliding frictional forces. The dual hydraulic cylinders which impart translating and rotating motion to the wings can add to the cost, complexity, and weight of the plow. The hinge mechanism can also be subject to galling from snow, ice, salt, and corrosion, and thus it too can suffer from premature wear. More powerful, and hence heavier, hydraulic cylinders can be required to actuate the hinge mechanisms if corroded, frozen, etc. due to increased torsional resistance.
It is desirable to improve upon current snow plows in use by providing a plow which is configurable to and between a longer extended length for plowing and a shorter retracted length for over road travel, and which is also configurable into bucket and/or pusher configurations, yet which does not suffer from the drawbacks of the plows of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,442,877, 6,412,199, 6,408,549, 5,899,007, and 5,638,618.